Author Archives: toddsattersten

History Supplying the Stories

Posted on by under Marketing

McMenamins is a chain of pubs located in the Pacific Northwest. Brothers Michael and Brian have knack for buying properties no one wants, restoring them, and turning them into “historical theme parks”. Restoration involves historians finding stories about prior residents and artisans painting murals of the found ‘characters’. The 50 locations will often cross-promote each other through brochures and beer coasters.

I just love the use of story in their customer’s experience.

[source: For Fun & (Minimal Profit); Forbes – 8/15/05]

Citizen Lawyer

Posted on by under Open Source

The Internet is allowing people to take back control of journalism and marketers. How about law?

The Wall Street Journal has a great story [sub. needed] of exactly that today. Susan Hudock was fired from Aventis on medical grounds that she could no longer do her job. She suffers from shingles and was dealing with the condition by taking pain medication. This made is difficult for her to drive to see doctors as a drug rep. She asked for long term leave based on American With Disabilities Act and was denied.

This started the four year legal battle. She start with a lawyer helping her and had to go it alone after the legal bills became to large. The article details the trials and tribulations of representing yourself in the legal system. Some of the resources she used included FindLaw, the Cornell University Law School site, and episodes of Law & Order: Trial by Jury.

Hudock lost the case in trial, but will be again by representing herself as she appeals the verdict.

The State of Things

Posted on by under Blogging, Personal

The frequency of posting here is way down.

Part of it is time. We were gone for two weeks on vacation. You know what that can do to things.

I have been putting most of my extra time into getting More Space done. We have been in kind of a quiet period. We are putting the final touches on the essays and the layout. We are pushing to get it to the printer and I promise more news on the project soon. We are going to need your help to make it successful.

I have said this before, but with all the blogging I do for 800-CEO-READ, I am low on energy and material by the time I get here. That may actually get worse.

I have accepted a full-time position with 800-CEO-READ. I have been working with Jack as a consultant for the last 14 months. We have been talking for some time about me spending more time with them. I have been really happy with the things we have accomplished and I see all sorts of potential for the future. I think it is going to be a great place to hang my hat.

I think with a place to focus my energy I don’t have spare brain cells to spend thinking and commenting about the general affairs of the business day.

What does that mean? It means you are going to hear from me less here. I want to lower your expectations a little. If you like my angle on things, check out the 800-CEO-READ blog because you will continue to see alot of me there.

I know I still need this outlet, so don’t worry about me disappearing completely.

More soon…

Home At Last

Posted on by under Customer Service

Yesterday, I was flying back from a couple of weeks in Virginia. Weather on East Coast was screwing up flights and causing all sorts of delays.

Just as I sit down in the terminal, the grumbling starts. “There’s no way we are going to get out of here on time.” “Oh look, the plane is finally here.” “Like I am going to have any chance of making my connection.”

We were on the plane for about an hour before they backed us away from the gate. Anyone you could look out the window could see the rain pouring down. Everyone else could hear the thunder and see the lightning flashes.

Grumbling rises to complaining. People are on their cellphones saying the plane is late and they don’t know anything else. The steward gets rung and asked a million times. “How much longer?” “Will I make my connection?”

I will grant you the information is controlled pretty tightly in the airline industry. They could use a little more transparency. What I will not grant you is the license to gripe about your predicament. People think it is a great way to strike up conversation and make funny jokes about how terrible the airline industry is.

If you find me sitting along you, keep your jokes to yourself. I think most of the folks there are doing the best job they can.

Ray Allen is a Class Act

Posted on by under Uncategorized

I was pretty disappointed when the Bucks traded Ray Allen to the SuperSonics for a partial season of Gary Payton. Herb Kohl was turning the Bucks into a very sellable asset by getting rid of all the expensive players.

Allen is now negotiating his contract with Seattle. Check this out:

Though the average yearly salary of the contract is $16 million, the starting salary for Allen has not yet been worked out. Allen’s side has given the Sonics the freedom to structure the deal however they choose in order to allow the team to surround Allen with talent, possibly by re-signing some of their own free agents or entering the free-agent market and signing top quality players.

Ray understands what the game is about – winning.

[via kottke and True Hoop]

BBC blogging London Bombings

Posted on by under Uncategorized

Check out the BBC’s blog style reporting to this morning’s London bombings. You get a real on the street feel to what is going on.

We are vacationing in DC this week and are heading down to the Capitol Mall this morning. It will be interesting to see how much the security has been heightened.

Update (5:30pm): Just returned and we didn’t see much increased security activity in the Metro stations. We did notice a lot of security around the White House, including sharpshooters on the roof. That could be normal, though.

Look for the Growth

Posted on by under Marketing, Sales

I enjoy the Catalog Critic each Friday in the Wall Street Journal. This week they looked at [sub. needed] a particular type of knife known as the santoku. The business side of story was equally interesting:

[Santoku] knives have been available in the U.S. for more than a decade, but only recently have they really started to take off. Knifemakers give some credit to chef Rachel Ray, who praised the knives’ handling and sharpness on the Food Network two years ago. Knifemaker Wusthof’s santoku sales have increased tenfold from three years earlier, replacing the chef’s knife as its best-seller and now make up 10% of the company’s total revenue. While houseware sales nationwide are flat, cutlery sales rose 5% last year from the year before thanks in part to a four-fold increase in the number of santokus sold, according to the marketing-information company NPD Group.

Stop It. Right Now.

Posted on by under Blogging

There is an article in Men’s Health this month about how you can simplify your life. There is a sidebar that specifically spells out 16 things you can do to make things simpler.

#15 was blogging.

It recommended you give up blogging and start playing more attention to your girlfriend.

I think you can do both…

Old School…

Posted on by under Business Blogs

Today, Scoble pointed to Haydn Trumpets and their Student Trumpet Blog.

When I was in the fourth grade, I joined the grade school band and started playing a Holton B flat cornet. It was the same instrument my mother played through in grade school and high school.

(The cool local connection is that Holton plant is located in Elkhorn, WI and is the oldest instrument maker in the country. One more cool connection – parent company LeBlanc is located in Kenosha, WI. I always though the all these Wisconsin roots for musical instrument companies was interesting.)

Anyway, the next year there were so many people playing trumpet and cornet I got moved to baritone. I ended up playing baritone all the way through high school and college.

Tip for the kids: Learn trombone, it is way cooler…